Welcome to Age Concern Brighton Hove & Portslade.

   As our local City Council faces reductions of at least 28% over the next 4 years it is inevitable that those who are struggling to stay independent in their own homes will get less support from the Council, and Health, and they will turn to us even more. Our values mean that this organisation will not simply cut and reduce services, in fact the Board of Trustees have been clear that we must prioritise any savings so that protect our direct delivery to the client group.

   What we know for sure is that whatever the Big Society is, a concept that is such an important part of the Prime Ministers' thinking; it cannot be achieved without organisations like ours. Otherwise, yet again, older people and their local groups will be left behind because older people do not shout or work in `sound bites'.

   So, as we move forward into 2011, and continue to approach 50 years as an organisation, more than ever we need your help through donations, legacies and volunteering. However, more importantly, when you have the opportunity to speak to politicians and other decision makers, remind them of Aldous Huxley's book Brave New World. At the centre of that book there were a couple of disturbing images, one of which was that everyone was happy to die at 60 so they did not become a burden on society and the other was that when things ceased to work they were disposed of so that industry could produce a replacement and the economy would continue to proper. The words Huxley wrote `ending is better than mending' cannot be true of a world where older people have a right to not just survive but to laugh and enjoy their longevity.

   The people we work with are not lonely victims they are funny, rude, outrageous and only limited by the society in which they live. If we all want them to enjoy their lives we can choose for that to happen.

   Why not start by demanding more for them, especially more choice, and why not say to the United Nations that the internet should be a human right for older people instead of constantly underestimating their ability to use it. How arrogant some of us are if we assume they will not grasp information technology. After all, they are the generations that flew Spitfires, invented radar, sonar and nuclear energy, took us to the moon, discovered planets, created the internet and unravelled the mysteries of our DNA. The internet is literally child's play after that.

   Since the presidential elections and the oratory of Barak Obama `change the world' has become a part of so many politicians speeches, but maybe we should remember the people who are over 60 today, actually did change the world, culturally, scientifically and morally. We surely we owe them something for that?

Jim Baker
Chief Executive